Field of the Invention
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Japanese Patent Application No. 2015-065342 filed on Mar. 26, 2015, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus such as a multifunctional digital image forming apparatus (i.e., a multi-function peripheral abbreviated as MFP) having multiple functions, e.g., copier function, printer function, facsimile function, and scanner function, an image processing system being provided with this image processing apparatus and a portable terminal apparatus, a method for giving a temporary use permission to this portable terminal apparatus, and a recording medium.
Description of the Related Art
The following description sets forth the inventor's knowledge of related art and problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
At offices or other work locations, users can use functions of such an image processing apparatus as described above from their portable terminal apparatuses, e.g., smartphones and tablet computers. In the circumstances, their portable terminal apparatuses are normally registered for security purposes. So, nobody can use functions of this image processing apparatus from an unregistered portable terminal apparatus.
However, it often happens that they accidentally have a trouble on their registered portable terminal apparatuses or find themselves without their registered portable terminal apparatuses. When it happens at offices, they will be unable to use functions of the image processing apparatus from their portable terminal apparatuses and thus suffer from slow down at work. In other cases users sometimes need to work with a portable terminal apparatus having a larger display than those of their registered portable terminal apparatuses.
They can borrow an extra in-house portable terminal apparatus or register an individually-owned portable terminal apparatus, but they will have to finish some paper work for it or wait some time until it is prepared.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-199521 discloses an information output system that is flexible for its capability of quickly permitting use even by an unregistered user, the information output system being configured to output target information as requested from a terminal apparatus. This information output system is provided with the following parts: an information obtaining portion that obtains reference information from a terminal apparatus, such as individual information and a terminal identification number, the reference information to select an output permission level that defines functions allowed for the user; an information output permitting portion that selects an output permission level with reference to the reference information; and an output processor that outputs target information within a scope of the output permission level.
The technique described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-199521, however, is not a technique for allowing users to use functions of the image processing apparatus from a portable terminal apparatus temporarily in place of a registered portable terminal apparatus having a proper use permission. Furthermore, according to the publication, the information output system obtains reference information such as individual information and a terminal identification number from the terminal apparatus and determines an output permission level with reference to the reference information. There may be a significant risk of compromising the security for the entire image processing system including the image processing apparatus depending on the application installed on the terminal apparatus.